Sex Offender Leaves Virginia Walmart ‘Campsite’

WCYB-TV, Bristol, Va., reported that it discovered a convicted sex offender camped at a Walmart parking lot in Bristol.

The station’s story follows:

We discovered he gave Virginia authorities the address of a local Walmart as his legal residence. We wanted to know how he did that, so we paid him a visit and found out the store management didn’t even know he was there.

Parents are always told to keep a close eye in their kids in public. It turns out a man with a criminal past has been living in a very busy place and no one seemed to know.

“You guys don’t deserve to be here with your cameras,” the man said after we knocked on the door of his RV. “See what I am getting at? Mind your own business, world.”

The man’s name was Doug Young, and he wasn’t too happy to see us. Young is a convicted sex offender found guilty of three counts of child molestation back in 1985 in Georgia.

Young denies those charges to this day. “I don’t think it’s fair because people point at you and say ‘sex offender, you are dirt. Hey everybody, gossip gossip gossip,'” he said.

Young first came to our attention through a news tip. We checked him out on the Virginia sex offender registry and found he listed his address on Lee Highway. We checked that address and confirmed he was living in an RV on the edge of a Walmart parking lot.

We knocked on his door to ask him about it. “If you haven’t walked a mile in my shoes, stay out of my shoes. And stay out of my face,” he said. “I am sick and tired of people looking at me and saying I am some sort of pervert. You don’t even know me, you don’t even know the truth. It’s all lies. So give us a break will you?”

Virginia officials tell us they knew where he was, but the Bristol Walmart store manager told us he didn’t know he had set up the RV in their parking lot.

Store manager Greg Cunningham told us they do allow some truckers to park and rest there overnight. “We do allow people to stop and get rest and spend the night, both truck drivers and campers,” he explained. “We have quite a few who take advantage of that.”

Walmart officials say tractor trailers and RVs are welcome to use their parking lots to get a night’s rest. However, when we showed them the Virginia state press release regarding Mr. Young, they assured us they will immediately notify authorities and let them know that this was not his permanent address.

Young did admit to living in the parking lot, but said he never asked for permission to live there. He says he did give authorities the correct address because he was living there.

“You don’t have to go out there and tell the public and put people on TV just because they made a stinking mistake,” he said. “Get off our backs. The people served time for what they did. [I] deserve after 29 years to be off this stuff.”

We contacted Virginia officials about why they didn’t know Young was living in the parking lot. After we brought it to their attention, they said they’re looking into the matter.

Here’s another twist — Mr. Young had moved his RV by the time we’d finished filming. Since our story, Mr. Young has moved to a nearby campground and he was quick to give authorities his new address.